R Kelly Trial: Former Girlfriend Gives 'Murder' Testimony

A former girlfriend of R. Kelly’s sobbed in a federal courtroom Thursday as she testified that Kelly’s longtime business manager told her in 2007 they should have killed her instead of paying her to return an incriminating videotape of Kelly having sex with her and a 14-year-old girl.

The Chicago Tribune reports Lisa Van Allen, 42, took the witness stand on the ninth day of Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago, where the disgraced R&B star and two associates, Derrel McDavid and Milton “June” Brown,” are accused of conspiring to pay off witnesses and buy back sex tapes to hide years of Kelly’s sexual misconduct.

Van Allen testified that in the late 1990s, she had sexual contact with Kelly and his underage goddaughter at the behest of the singer, who also filmed and directed their encounters. After she took one of the tapes and sent it to a friend in Kansas City, Kelly offered her $250,000 to get it back, she said.

Near the end of her direct examination, Van Allen broke down in tears as she described how McDavid threatened her at a lawyer’s office in Chicago after she had failed a polygraph test about the tape.

Van Allen

“He said that I failed (the test), and that they should have murked me from the beginning” — that is, they should have killed her.

At the defense table, McDavid pursed his lips and turned to Kelly, who was seated behind him, and shook his head slowly.

In a vigorous cross-examination Thursday afternoon, Beau Brindley, an attorney for McDavid, confronted Van Allen about her claim she was threatened, pointing out that McDavid was Kelly’s business manager and suggesting it was all a lie.

Brindley asked why, if Van Allen’s goal was to keep people from seeing the sex tape, she didn’t just destroy it after she stole it.

“I could’ve if that thought had crossed my mind,” she said. She also denied taking the tape because she wanted to use it to extort Kelly for money.

Kelly, 55, is charged with 13 counts of production of child pornography, conspiracy to produce child pornography and conspiracy to obstruct justice. McDavid and Brown, according to the indictment, schemed to buy back incriminating sex tapes that had been taken from Kelly’s collection and hide years of alleged sexual abuse of underage girls.